


Eleven Years Old

by Butterynutjob



Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, First Kiss, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, actually the fluffiest thing I've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 07:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5819527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterynutjob/pseuds/Butterynutjob
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They play Magneto vs. Professor X all the time. Charles knows Erik didn't mean to hurt him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eleven Years Old

**Author's Note:**

> Just a fluffy no-powers kid!fic.

_It's good the only metal things around are small_ , Charles thought as Erik pelted him with some old screws he’d found on the playground. 

“You must obey the Master of Magnetism!” Erik shouted from his hiding place behind the swingset. 

“Ow,” Charles said plaintively as one of the screws hit him in the forehead. “Don’t throw so hard!”

Erik’s head popped out from behind the swingset. “What?”

“I said, don’t throw so hard,” Charles shouted back. Something tickled his eyebrow and he thought it was a bug. He went to brush it away and his hand came away red and wet. He stared at his hand in absolute befuddlement.

“You’re bleeding,” Erik said, coming out from behind the swingset. He was staring at Charles’ forehead with a stricken look on his face. 

“Oh.” Charles touched the blood again. It didn’t really hurt that much, not nearly as much as the time he’d gotten stung by a bee. “Does it look cool?”

Erik didn’t respond and Charles looked at him only to see that Erik’s lower lip was quivering and he looked like he was about to cry. “I didn’t mean to,” he said. 

“I know,” Charles said, starting to feel anxious himself. Erik was his best friend and he usually got angry when he was upset...Charles had never seen him cry and it made Charles stomach hurt to think that Erik could be _that_ upset about this. 

“But you can’t take down Professor X so easily,” Charles said, trying to draw Erik back into the game. “I’m gonna mind-control you!” He brought his right hand to his temple (the side oppostie the side that was hurt) and scowled ominously. “Magneto, you must do as I command!”

Erik blinked a few times. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then held his arms straight out in front of himself like he was a zombie. “Yes, master,” he intoned. 

It was Charles’ turn to blink. Erik usually always found some way to get out of Professor X’s mind control, but this time he was allowing it. “Well, then, come here,” Charles said imperiously.

Erik shuffled towards him, his hands still held out in his zombie imitation. He stopped when his fingers were a few inches away from Charles. 

Charles felt a heady thrill run through him. What could he make Erik do? “If you really are my slave,” he said, licking his lips, “then you will...you will...kiss me.” He smiled right after he said it but the smile left his face quickly. He swallowed and looked at Erik.

Erik kept eye contact with Charles but he appeared to be deep in thought, his eyebrows knitted together. His hands slowly came down to his sides and he stepped closer to Charles. 

Charles kept his hand on his temple and his eyes widened. Was he actually controlling Erik’s mind? Because he’d expected Erik to react with disgust, not to bend down like he was doing—

Charles remembered he was supposed to close his eyes after Erik’s lips touched his. Erik’s lips were softer than they looked and while a part of Charles was freaking out that this was happening at all, another part of him was cataloging all the details of his first kiss: the feel of sunlight on the side of his hair, the smell of bubblegum from Erik’s mouth...even the eyebrow tickle that he knew must be more blood trickling down. 

He was so caught up in the details that his eyes were still closed when Erik pulled away. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times, looking up at Erik. 

Erik’s face was bright red. His mouth opened like he was about to speak and then he just turned and ran away. 

Charles was stunned and more than a little hurt. Was he such a bad kisser that Erik had to run away from him? The thought hurt, but it also occurred to him that maybe Erik was embarrassed because Charles made him do that, and then shame swept through Charles. He ran after Erik and caught up to him after a couple hundred feet. 

“Hey,” Charles said, out of breath, “I’m sorry.”

Erik fell out of his run, but continued towards his home at a more rapid pace than Charles could comfortably walk. “Why are you sorry?” he mumbled, or at least that’s what Charles thought he said. 

“You didn’t have to do that,” Charles tried to explain. 

“Yeah, obviously,” Erik said, glaring at Charles briefly before he glared at the ground again. “It was a joke. I get it. Ha ha.”

Charles was moving faster than he was comfortable, trying to keep up with Erik’s longer stride. “What?” he said. 

“Can we just forget it?” Erik said desperately.

Charles thought about that as he struggled to keep up. “I don’t want to forget it,” he finally said. “That was my first kiss, you know.”

Erik finally slowed down, although he still wasn’t looking directly at Charles. “It was?”

“Yes.” 

Erik stopped walking altogether. He glanced at Charles briefly, then bit his lip and looked away. “Then why did you apologize?”

“I thought maybe I really had mind-controlled you into doing it,” Charles admitted, feeling his own cheeks heat up. 

Erik looked at Charles then, although his eyes were locked to the bloody place on Charles’ forehead. “You know you’re not _actually_ Professor X, right?” The corner of his mouth moved up a little bit. 

Charles rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know, but I didn’t think...I couldn’t believe...I mean, why else would you kiss me?”

Erik looked Charles in the eye then, and for a moment he looked simultaneously older and younger than his eleven years. “Because I wanted to,” he said simply. “And I thought you wanted me to.”

“I did,” Charles replied softly. 

Erik’s mouth slowly grew a smile and he ducked his head and scuffed the ground with his shoe. “Well, good.”

Charles bit his lip so as to try and keep his smile under control, but he could feel that it wasn’t working. “Yeah. Good.”

They both stood there awkwardly trying to hide their grins as the afternoon sun beat down on them. “I’m sorry about…” Erik said abruptly, gesturing to Charles’ forehead after a minute of charged silence. “My mom has band-aids, if you, you know, want to come over.” 

Charles had almost forgotten about that. He touched the blood on his forehead, which was beginning to feel sticky. “Sure. Does it look cool?”

Erik squinted at him, looking him up and down. Charles felt a funny kind of excitement as he felt Erik’s gaze on him. “Yeah,” Erik said quietly after a moment. “You look good.”

And Charles decided to also memorize every detail of the feeling when Erik picked up his his hand and held it in his as they walked together to his mother’s house.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Eleven Years Old](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5968848) by [DuendeVerde4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuendeVerde4/pseuds/DuendeVerde4)




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